1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a thermal ink jet printer having an electrical interconnect actuation which interacts with cap station articulation. More specifically, the invention relates to a sliding connector plate located on a fast scan carriage of a printer which allows easy vertical insertion and electrical interconnect of a printhead cartridge without interference of a capping station.
2. Description of Related Art
In most conventional, commercially available thermal ink jet printers, a printhead comprising a plurality of nozzles located on a channel plate is associated with a reservoir of ink. A heater plate is associated with the channel plate and includes a plurality of resistors which receive signals providing current to the resistors to selectively heat one or more of the resistors. The heated resistors, in turn, heat ink located in an associated nozzle of the channel plate and form a droplet of ink which is expelled from the nozzle onto a print medium, such as a sheet of paper.
The printhead is usually located within a printhead cartridge which houses the printhead, comprising the channel plate and heater plate and associated nozzles and resistors, and also the ink reservoir. The print cartridge is supported in a carriage which is movable along a path perpendicular to the direction of movement of the print medium through the printer. The exact control of the movement of the printhead on the carriage is controlled by a microprocessor which operates a drive motor and a belt drive.
Maintenance stations are often provided on thermal ink jet printers to maintain and service the printhead. These can include capping stations for capping printhead nozzles during non-use to prevent contaminants from entering the nozzles and to prevent drying of the ink within the nozzles which can cause clogging. These maintenance stations may also include purge stations and wiping stations.
In such systems, ink jet cartridges are usually installed at a home position of the carriage, which is at an end of the path of travel of the carriage, beyond the normal path of the carriage traversed during printing. The maintenance stations are also located near the home position and the cartridge printhead is capped by the maintenance station during periods of non use.
One particular scanning head thermal ink jet printer design has the printhead nozzles oriented 45.degree. off of horizontal (firing 45.degree. down). In this type of printer, it is necessary to install the printhead cartridge at 45.degree. so that a cartridge capping surface on a front face of the printhead cartridge contacts a cap station seal in a direction normal to the seal. This is required to avoid problems with sliding die channels of the nozzles of the printhead across the seal. Without 45.degree. insertion, the cap station becomes an interference to cartridge insertion and has several problems relating to ergonomics of the insertion and to prohibitive cost increases in the cartridge. It is highly desirable to have vertical cartridge insertion for such a printer.